Quotes from Robbie Robertson

I am fascinated by the places that music comes from, like fife-and-drum blues from southern Mississippi or Cajun music out of Lafayette, Louisiana, shape-note singing, old harp singing from the mountains - I love that stuff. It's like the beginning of rock and roll: something comes down from the hills, and something comes up from the delta.

The Band is probably the ultimate example of people taking all kinds of music, from gospel to blues to mountain music to folk music to on and on and on and on and putting them all in this big pot and mixing up a new gumbo.

Give us the strength, give us the wisdom, and give us tomorrow.

When I was 14 years old, I had the opportunity to meet Buddy Holly. I asked him how he got that big, powerful sound out of his guitar amp. He said, 'I blew a speaker and decided not to get it fixed.'

People think I left The Band and spoiled this whole thing, and that's not what happened. Nobody broke up The Band. Nobody ever said, 'That's it, we're done.'

Chuck Berry told me if it wasn't for Louis Jordan, he wouldn't have probably ever even got into music. That Louis Jordan changed everything and made him want to become a musician.

In a lot of groups, you can change a musician, and it doesn't mean anything.

I don't know - it's a bit of a mystery of how things come about when they do. I don't have a scientific explanation for it. Sometimes when you're writing a song, you don't know where you're going.

Think about the number of people who do film music, make records and have a Native American heritage - and I may be the only one on the list.

My mother is extraordinary. She understood me and never tried to hold me back.

The native music of North America, the original-roots music of this country, is also the underworld music of this country.

It's a bit of a sore spot, the Thanksgiving in Indian country.

I think, some countries, you have to be dead to have your picture on a stamp.

The direction is going the right way for respect for aboriginal people in North America, and all we can do is stand up and say, 'Please do it faster.'

There's a thing that has happened in the U.S. where the spirit has been beaten so badly and so you feel no unity in the voice of the country.

To find a new star in the sky is pretty hard.

A lot of people from my generation can't write songs anymore, or it's really hard and it's an unpleasant experience. I don't feel that way at all.

Sixteen years on the road is long enough. Twenty years is unthinkable.

A lot of times when you're making a record, you put your head down and charge forward until you're done. You just hope that the ideas hold up, because you're kind of lost in your own storm.

I was a storyteller for The Band. It was never, 'Hey guys, here's a song about what happened to me.' I was always more comfortable writing fiction.

I really have to feel a sense of freedom in my storytelling.

One of the things I feel very strong about is the achievement of the Band really being a complete band.

I'm always optimistic.

I like to work on records when I feel inspired, not because it's expected of me.